Travel Expenses

xeikon · 6 July 2014 at 8:58AM

Hi, What I need to know is simply can I re-claim travel costs.

I work in the security sector and although working full time I dont have a permanant workplace. What happens is that each week my employer phones me up with my shifts for the week. These places vary and could be three or thirty miles away and changes every week. I get no travel costs from my employer at all.

My only evidence of where I have worked in the past comes from payslips, thats how im working my milage out.

Looking at the goverment website it says you cant claim for commuting to a permanent place but I dont know if my way of working is classed as commuting as im not permanent on any site.

I contacted the hmrc but the lady I spoke to didnt seem to know and said just fill in the online form p87.

I want to get this right and im not trying to claim something im not entitled too, so any help appreciated.

dave

booksurr · 6 July 2014 at 10:32AM

does your employment contract make any reference at all to your place of employment?

I think (someone may correct me) that you fall under the rules relating to site based workers which are very complex!

for example:
- if the places you actually work at over a period of time continually repeat, ie you return to the same place after having worked somewhere else for a short period then it would be ordinary commuting as you fall foul of this rule http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/eim32107.htm

- if your contract refers to your place of employment as being within a geographical area then it is not claimable as that falls within ordinary commuting
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM32190.htm

OhReally_2 · 6 July 2014 at 12:29PM

xeikon wrote: »

Hi, What I need to know is simply can I re-claim travel costs.

I work in the security sector and although working full time I dont have a permanant workplace. What happens is that each week my employer phones me up with my shifts for the week. These places vary and could be three or thirty miles away and changes every week. I get no travel costs from my employer at all.

My only evidence of where I have worked in the past comes from payslips, thats how im working my milage out.

Looking at the goverment website it says you cant claim for commuting to a permanent place but I dont know if my way of working is classed as commuting as im not permanent on any site.

I contacted the hmrc but the lady I spoke to didnt seem to know and said just fill in the online form p87.

I want to get this right and im not trying to claim something im not entitled too, so any help appreciated.

dave

You'll have to ask your employer; they are the only people that can pay you expenses (without being taxed)

You don't get any tax free payment for commuting to & from work.

I think there's an example on the HNRC website of a builder that has no permanenet place of work but travels to various building sites throughout the year. (not from one site to another, but works at one site at a time, but this obviously changes through the year) That is classed as commuting.

madgagoo · 7 July 2014 at 5:47PM

I'd say you need to look at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/eim32366.htm and see if you believe you meet the criteria for an itinerant worker. It's HMRC's employment manual, so is a bit 'technical' but simply if you have no permanent base then any travel *should* be an allowable expense. It you return to the same few places (e.g. Up to 10 sites?) then you may not meet the criteria and your travel would be classed as commuting and not allowable. It's a bit of a grey area and HMRC may ask you to provide detailed breakdowns of travel claimed (unlikely IMHO but still possible).

I would start keeping a detailed mileage log with miles, dates and destinations.

If you can claim travel expenses then it will be a deduction of 45p per mile (for the first 10,000 miles then 25p per mile) - assuming you drive a car. Do note that this will reduce your tax bill by 20% of the expense claimed, not by 45p per mile! (More if you pay higher/additional rate).

Hope that makes sense!

xeikon · 11 July 2014 at 3:22PM

Sorry could not reply until now. First thanks for your replies, its appreciated.

Reading the links to be honest Im still unsure if I can claim (Even the lady at HMRC I phoned up was not sure, so what hope have I got to understand it?).

To back track a bit, as said above I get my shifts via a telephone call every week, for the coming week, I dont have a permanent site but go from site to site covering sickness and holidays mainly, I could be at the same place over one day a few days or even a week, but generally speaking i seem to go to 2 or 3 sites over a week. I may not go back to a site for months or could be back the very next week. I have over 20 sites to visit over the year. These are between 3 and 30 miles away and no help in expenses from my employer.

I did ask my employer about this but have been constantly fobbed off and to be honest give up after a couple of years of asking. They were of the opinion that I should be lucky Im working. The funny thing is I know they do give expenses to other employees for the same method of working and same distances, but not me! The funniest excuse was that as I travel by motorcycle I cant claim from them. I was advised to buy a more economical bike, such as a moped, if I wanted to save money.. lets think? Motorway + Moped = Death, yea!

Anyway, I have decided to fill the form in as advised by the lady at HMRC so hope I dont get done for some sort of tax fraud, because Im just trying to claim something I think I might be entitled to. I have worked out mileages from all available payslips, using Google maps.